Peppery Pear Salsa Recipe!

Sweet juicy pears combined with red and green peppers to create a carnival of colours in this tantalizingly spicy salsa. It can be used as a dipping sauce, breakfast condiment with eggs or just on its own with chips. Also works great with grilled meat and chicken.

Ingredients:

1 cup white vinegar
8 cups coarsely chopped, cored peeled Garside's Fruit Farm Bartlett Pears
3 red bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
3 green bell peppers, seeded and coarsely chopped
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 tbsp salt
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Prepare canner, jars and lids.
2. In a large saucepan, combine vinegar and pears. Add red and green peppers, sugar, salt, mustard, turmeric, allspice and black pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
3. Ladle hot salsa into hot jars, leaving about 1/2 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met, then increase to fingertip tight.
4. Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process the jars for 20 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.

This recipe makes approximately six - 250 mL jars or three - 500 mL jars.  (I have always found that it actually makes a closer to eight 250 mL jars with this recipe).

Tip: To prevent the pears from browning, it is recommended measuring the vinegar into the saucepan before preparing the pears. As the pears are chopped, drop them into the vinegar, stirring to ensure all surfaces are covered. When all have been chopped continue with Step 2.

Our delicious Bartlett Pears are ripening up nicely and we anticipate to start picking them over the next two weeks. If you wish to order any products send us an email or give us a call to place your advance orders. Our Organic Bartlett Pears are available for $0.75 per pound.

If you have any questions or orders, please call us at 604.556.4273 or email us at garsidesfruitfarm@shaw.ca